SILENT WITNESS: FALL OUT
by deetatarant
Summary: Follows on from Silent Witness. Ianto has taken the Retcon the gang are left to deal with the consequences.
1. Chapter 1

**SILENT WITNESS: EPITAPH**

The Torchwood gang piled in through the roller door heatedly debating the usefulness of the new weevil spray. Jack pulled off his beloved coat lamenting the tear that ran across the back of it and charged up to his office yelling for Ianto as he went. Jack slung his coat across the couch and went straight to his desk. He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed Ianto's wallet, gun, mobile phone, keys and ID card all neatly lined up on top of an envelope with his name on it. Apprehensively Jack picked the envelope up and opened it to discover a short handwritten note in Ianto's elegant script.

_Jack,_

_I've taken Retcon 16 x level 6, just to be sure I really don't remember. Please do not come looking for me. I need to start over and this is the only way. All the reports are up to date and I've done all of the filing, including Owen's so you should be OK for a few weeks. I've left instructions with the coffee machine._

_Please look after Gwen, Owen and Tosh; they are good people. _

_I am sorry Jack. I'm just not strong enough anymore on a whole number of levels and I know you will move on as you have had to so many times before. If you ever see me again, think kindly of me but leave me alone. Save the world Jack, it's what you are good at. If you keep doing that it means everything to me. I hope one day you will understand why I have chosen to do this._

_Forgive me._

_Ianto._

With shaking hands Jack lowered the sheet of paper down and he sank down into his chair.

Ianto. Oh shit Ianto.

"Owen!"

Jack lurched to his feet in a sudden panic. "Owen my office, now!"

Owen abandoned his search for his mug and trotted up to Jack's office. He baulked at the look on Jack's face.

"Jack? What's happened?"

Jack thrust the note at him.

"It's Ianto. He's taken enough Retcon to wipe out his entire past. We have to find him."

"Shit. How long ago?"

Jack shrugged. "Can't be more than a few hours. I'll check the CCTV, you need to put together a dose of the antidote and hope it fucking works."

Owen threw him an unhappy look. "Jack it's experimental at best. I haven't tested it properly yet. It may make things worse."

"With that amount of Retcon in his system how can it possibly be worse?"

Owen nodded. "Point taken." He hesitated. "Jack, perhaps we……"

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence. I want him back him here, intact. What ever it takes Owen!"

Tosh squealed with delight the moment she located Ianto. The surgically implanted tracking device was sending its steady signal locating Ianto to a bench in Bute Park. A CCTV camera confirmed her suspicions and she relayed the information to Jack over the comms. The moment Owen had prepared his med kit they had gone out in the SUV to look for their colleague. They found the young Welshman deeply unconscious, as if asleep on the bench, still in his suit, head resting on his arms as if he'd settled himself there for a nap. Not wanting to waste any time Owen stuck an IV Canula into the back of Ianto's hand and gave him a large dose of the counter measure drug. Once done, Jack gathered him up and carried him back to the SUV, Owen leading the way.

They burst into the Hub in an urgent flurry. Owen in front Jack trailing behind with Ianto draped in his arms. The two of them charged down in to the Autopsy Bay with Gwen and Toshiko at their heels. Jack carefully laid Ianto down noting the increased paleness in the young man's face the bluish tinge in his lips. Owen was wiring him up to the monitors with practised efficiency and Jack pulled over the crash trolley. Owen checked Ianto's pulse.

"Shit! Jack charge the paddles to 360, I'm going to have to shock him."

Jack complied and stepped back and watched in a daze as Owen tried to resuscitate Ianto. Three shocks and lot of bad language later and Ianto's heart finally started working again. Owen went back to getting Ianto stabilised. Tosh was there helping Owen remove Ianto's clothes properly so that he could put up a drip and run some more tests. Ianto remained steadfastly unconscious through out. Gwen stood beside Jack watching in worried silence, still not entirely certain what had happened. Jack had not explained to either her or Toshiko about what Ianto had done.

Owen finally stepped looking grim faced.

"There's nothing more I can do Jack. It's up to him now. If he does wake up there's no guarantee that the antidote will have worked. He took way too much Retcon, his synapses should be fried….We may have got to him in time, but…well. You know the score."

Jack nodded numbly. "Thank you Owen. Can the rest of you clear the bay now? I don't want Ianto getting freaked out when he wakes up."

Tosh brushed a brief kiss to Ianto's fore head as she left the bay and she and Gwen made their way up the steps. Owen did a final couple of checks then followed them out on the pretence of needing a coffee even though he couldn't have one.

Jack sagged down into a chair beside Ianto's prone form and he grasped the young man's limp right hand and squeezed it tight. He knew he was hoping for a miracle as he had done only a few weeks before when he used that glove on Owen. Miracles were possible Jack had to believe that right now but glancing at the monitors to his left didn't give him much cause to hope. He leant his forehead against Ianto's arm and choked back a sob. Not now, not like this. Why when he had all this life couldn't he help the one person he so needed to help?

"Ugh." It was the faintest sound.

Jack sat up and looked straight into Ianto's pale face. His eyes were wide pools of confusion.

Jack stood up and gazed down into Ianto's line of sight.

"It's OK. Everything's ok. SShhhh." He gently carded his fingers through Ianto's hair. "It's all fine; you're safe, hold still. I need Owen to check you over."

"Oh. I need to be sick. Oh, god, where am I?"

Jack was frowning now and turned his head and yelled for Owen. The medic was there straight away.

"Hey Ianto mate. Gave us a bit of a scare there. How do you feel?"

Ianto tried to sit up, everything went a bit wild in his vision. "Oh, not so good. What's going on? I don't remember, why am I here?"

Owen and Jack exchanged worried looks.

"What is the last thing you remember?"

Ianto was sitting now his shoulder sagging. He looked up at Jack. "Sorry, but who are you? What happened to me?"

Jack gave him a reassuring smile. "It's alright. Ianto what do you remember?"

Ianto appeared to think about it, a deep frown across his brow. "I'm not sure I remember anything much. I was on the coach back to Cambridge after visiting Mam and Tad."

Jack gently squeezed his shoulders trying hard to hold back his own tears.

"Nothing else?"

Ianto slowly shook his head.

Owen folded his arms and looked over the medical monitors.

"It could have been worse Jack."

Ianto looked up at that. "What could have been? Please one of you tell what's happened to me."

Jack sighed. "Owen is he physically OK?"

Owen nodded. "Seems to be, but he's staying here for a few days under observation Jack, until all the drugs are out of his system at least."

"All right. Then would you excuse us please. I'll give Ianto the run down on what's been happening."

Owen left reluctantly.

Jack held on to Ianto but the younger man, regaining some strength and equilibrium pulled himself away.

"Tell me what happened."

Jack resumed his seat and took Ianto's hand. It was immediately withdrawn.

"You took an overdose of a drug called Retcon this morning, enough to kill you twice over. We got to you in time to administer the counter agent, but your memories have been compromised."

Ianto gaped at him in horror. "What?!" He tried to get up and Jack held him down which wasn't difficult.

"Let me go!"

"Ianto! Please no one is going to hurt you, you're safe. Please!"

Ianto froze whether or not that was down to Jack's assurances he wasn't sure. Ianto fixed him with an intensely frightened stare.

"Tell me this isn't some fucked up prank of Ollie's."

"No pranks. I'm sorry but this is real. Your name is Ianto Jones born Aug 19th 1983 in Newport, South Wales youngest of two children. You are now 24 years of age and you work for an organisation called Torchwood."

Ianto crumpled. "24? Oh God, no I'm not! I was 19 last week. You're shitting me!"

Jack gently touched his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Ianto pushed him away and lay back on the cot curling himself up into a ball, pulling the sparse cotton blanket tightly around him.

"Ianto I…"

"Go away. Leave me alone."

Jack took a pace back mortified. He resumed his seat.

"Are you lying to me?" The tone was pathetic.

"No lies. I can show you the evidence if you want."

Ianto rolled over and faced Jack. "Am I missing? Do my parents know where I am? God they'll be so worried."

Jack's heart broke. "No Ianto. You haven't been missing. You don't see your family much and your Tad passed away in 2002, three weeks after your 19th birthday. I'm sorry there's no easy way to tell you."

Ianto went white. "No." It was whispered as tears flooded down his face.

Jack nodded. "Yes."

Ianto sighed blinking away his tears. Somehow he knew this strange man was telling him the truth. "What else have I lost?" His tone was resigned.

Jack carefully wiped the water from Ianto's face with the pad of his thumb.

"A lot and I promise we will go through it all but I think today may not be a good time."

Ianto was frowning at him now. "Why did I take the over dose?"

"Because I didn't take care of you well enough and for that I am sorry. It won't happen again."

"Who ARE you?"

"I'm your boss, and your friend."

Ianto's gaze wandered about the autopsy bay. "I'm sorry I've been so much trouble, sir." It felt like the right thing to say.

"Jack. You call me Jack these days or Cariad. I think I'd prefer to hear Cariad right about now."

Their eyes locked and Ianto suddenly realised something.

"Jack……" The sentence died on his lips as he sagged without warning into unconsciousness.

"Owen!"


	2. Chapter 2

**PART TWO**

"It's ok Jack, don't panic, he's just passed out, that's all." Owen stated having finished his assessment. He pulled out a blanket from one of the cabinets and handed it to Jack. "Here cover him; it's pretty chilly in here."

Jack obliged carefully wrapping the cotton cover over Ianto's shoulders and chest; the younger man appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Jack sighed knowing it wouldn't last. Owen took another blood sample.

"Is there any way to restore his memories?"

Owen froze for a moment, and then went back to his task. "I have to ask do we have the right to? This was Ianto's choice but in all honesty Jack it's up to him now. He may get a trigger that will unlock things, but I think he's got back all he is going to get back. Quite frankly it's a miracle serious damage wasn't done, he literally could have lost have everything right down to his language skills and the ability to take himself to the toilet. I know about all this crap with Canary Wharf and Lisa but something else happened didn't it?"

Jack looked at him from over Ianto's sleeping form. "I'm not sure it was one specific thing Owen.... just everything all at once. In the end I guess he felt he had nothing else to lose and after what he went through I can understand him wanting to forget."

"So what happens now?"

"I don't know. I guess as soon as he is well enough we find out what he wants to do. His mother lives in Cardiff I'm thinking I may be going to call her, it's possible he will want to go home. He thinks he's 19 and that his Tad is still alive and he hasn't graduated from Cambridge yet. Either way he can't stay here with Torchwood."

Owen nodded. "I was hoping you'd come to that conclusion. I'm sorry Jack. I know this is isn't easy for you."

Jack looked back down at Ianto. "I can't imagine it's that great for him either."

Owen stood there watching his boss closely. "Have you told him about your relationship?"

"Not in so many words.... I can't believe I didn't see this coming, after everything he's been through, I should've kept a closer eye on him and now I've lost him." Jack's hand absently went to stroke the side of Ianto's pale face. "This is the second time I have let him down."

"Don't blame yourself Jack. Ianto has never been good at opening up to any one of us. It's not as if you two were that serious is it?"

Jack sighed and faced Owen with a dismal look on his face. "I love him Owen and before this, he loved me. The only problem was that I was too stupid to tell him how I really felt. I kept him at a comfortable distance because it suited me, because it was easier for me, less complicated. He lost everything Owen and he was foundering and I couldn't be bothered to reach out to him. What kind of a person does that make me?"

Owen had no answers. "Too late now mate."

"Thanks for that."

"My pleasure. Now, let him rest. He's going to need some time to recover physically from the over dose, we'll have to decide what to do with him...."

"I think he's made that decision already, don't you?"

Owen had to concede the point. "What I was meaning was whether or not you want to erase his memory of today and dump him somewhere so that he doesn't remember us."

Jack was shaking his head. "No. He leaves here when he is well enough with no further interference from us. I'm not ready to lose him Owen."

"You think you haven't already?"

"Owen all Ianto has out there is an estranged mother and sister who don't want any more to do with him. He has no friends because they are dead already.... I am not going to dump him anywhere and abandon him, at the very least we can make sure he's settled on the outside with somewhere new to live and a job to go to." Jack's fingers were still caressing the sleeping man's cheek.

Owen was nodding his approval. "I'm glad to hear it."

TWO WEEKS LATER

Ianto watched silently as Owen ran the scanner down the length of his body. He thought continually about everything the others had told him. Jack had taken him to the cemetery to visit his Father's grave and then driven him to his mother's house. She had slammed the door in their faces. Ianto had cried for days after that and he had taken comfort from the little Japanese lady called Tosh and the American called Jack, supposedly his friends. How they had let him come to this? He realised deep down that they were not to blame, Ianto was well aware of how stubborn he could be. He'd asked Jack to take him through the last few 'missing' years of his life. Ianto studied the reports, photos and CCTV discs and none of it came back to him. He couldn't remember the woman he had loved and nearly destroyed everything for, couldn't remember the machines that had torn his world apart and had no recollection of getting to know and falling in love with Jack. Damn it he wasn't even slightly 'that way' inclined. Jack and Tosh had been kind and supportive and Ianto had thanked them though he still felt utterly alone. Doctor Harper completed his examination and Ianto smiled his thanks and pulled his T-shirt back on over his head.

"You're fine mate, everything's in the green."

Ianto nodded. "Thank you Dr Harper. I guess I am free to leave now am I?"

Owen nodded. "Yeah, talk to Jack."

Ianto slid off the autopsy table and wandered up the office where Jack spent most of his time. Ianto knocked on the door.

"Captain Harkness, may I come in?"

Jack gestured to the empty chair in front of his desk. "Owen give you a clean bill?"

"Yes, he did. I'd like to leave now."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, I've organised a new apartment for you." He passed over a padded envelope. "That's your house keys, your wallet and phone. Torchwood will continue to pay you until you've sorted secure employment. Take your time, there's no hurry. You can even work here, if you want." He added hopefully.

Ianto took the package. "I don't think so. I did this to myself for a reason. I think that Torchwood and you are tied up in all that. Either I truly wanted to die or to start a new life, this way means I to get to start over."

"I understand." Jack didn't want to. He rose to his feet. "You need anything, and I mean anything, you call me. Whatever has happened Ianto, I still love you and I know it's too late for that, but you can consider me a friend, or the others for that matter, you're important to us. So, like I said absolutely anything, you pick up that phone."

Ianto got up and outstretched his hand, Jack shook it squeezing it gently, knowing it would most likely be the last time they would ever touch. He let go.

"Come on, I'll walk you to the door. Come back in a couple of weeks for your car, after Owen's cleared you to drive."

Ianto hesitated and looked in Jack's darkened, sad eyes. "For what it is worth, I am sorry I hurt you. You seem like a good person."

Jack almost hitched a smile. "Obviously not good enough."

**FINIS....**

**AN: Sorry this took so long to conclude..... Anyone who hasn't read 'Silent Witness', this won't make much sense...... Ok so I still have 'don't look now' to finish....it's not forgotten, I promise.**

**Thank you very much as always for reading. Deeta.**


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